If you have talent, now’s the time to use it. If you can write, paint or cook you might be a winner. Even if you don’t feel like entering one of the contests, you can still participate by reading other people’s stories, judging artwork or trying a recipe. Read on…

Whenever you need cheering up you bake bread. Your first stop on vacation is the local grocery store. You once used chocolate syrup instead of maple syrup on pancakes and now it’s your family tradition. You may have seen Culinary Confessions, now check out Confessions of a Foodie, a contest sponsored by Copia. Submit your story in text, audio or video and you could win one of several fabulous prizes including a stay at a Napa spa or shopping spree at Copia’s shop. Deadline is July 31st. If you don’t feel like confessing you can also check out the Foodie File to see what others have shared.

Sweet Riot chocolate covered cocoa nibs are a good way to get your chocolate on. Chocolate is that antioxidant-laden substance that also happens to taste great. The chocolate comes in 50, 65 or 70 flavors, corresponding to the percentage of cocoa, 70 is 70% dark chocolate, etc. Packaged in nifty tins, the package can be reused or sent back to the company to be recycled.

In addition to the addictive nature of the product, Sweet Riot acts as a platform for emerging artists. How so? Each package features original artwork for three to four months. The artist is chosen by customers. So far the art has been bold, cheery and colorful. You can vote on artwork to be featured or submit your artwork for consideration. The next deadline is September 15th. Sweet Riot is sold at the MoMA Design stores and Whole Foods . 1-ounce tins are $4.99.

It’s finally Summer. You have watermelon and beer in the fridge. How about cooking with the beer instead of drinking it? If you have a great recipe that uses beer or think you can come up with one, perhaps you should consider the Cook With Beer Challenge. Beer is the only required ingredient and recipes may be submitted in any dish category. Grand prize is a trip for two to a resort in Mexico. You can enter by mail, fax, email or online, but the deadline is July 31st. The contest sponsor has offered up some recipes using beer to get you inspired.

Amy Sherman began blogging in 2003, because all her
friends and family were constantly asking her where
and what to eat. Three months after it launched,
Forbes chose her blog, Cooking with Amy, as one of the
top five best food blogs, praising her writing as
“smart, cozy and witty”. Since then her blog has been
featured and recipes reprinted in many newspapers and
magazines in the U.S. and the world.
In addition to regularly updating her blog, Amy is a
guest contributor to the Epicurious.com blog, and
Contributing Editor of Glam Dish. She also writes
restaurant reviews for SF Station.
Her focus on Bay Area Bites is primarily cookbook
reviews along with some interviews and current events.
Amy is a recipe developer and freelance food writer.
She is author of WinePassport: Portugal and wrote the new introduction to the classic cookbook, Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book, published by the University of Nebraska Press. She recently completed 45 recipes for a Williams-Sonoma cookbook and wrote her first piece for VIA magazine.
She is currently serving on the board of the San Francisco Professional Food Society and is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Amy lives in San Francisco with her husband, tech journalist Lee Sherman.

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Few people have a middling relationship to raw oysters—this mysterious, ubiquitous bivalve is loved and loathed in equal measure. These ten East Bay spots fall on the love end of the spectrum, and offer the best quality and presentation of these strange and healthful sea creatures on the east side of the bay.

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Two UC Berkeley professors think weeds get a bad rap. In fact, they believe the “mountains” of wild edible plants growing between the Bay Area’s sidewalks can help solve food access problems in food deserts.

Here is a helpful guide highlighting ten popular pizza restaurants in the South Bay Area. Of course, there are plenty more than ten restaurants in the South Bay that are worthy of making this list so please share your favorites in the comments.

It’s 5 o’clock, and you’re leaving the office in search of some post-work libations and snacks before dinner. You could go the traditional happy hour route — where you’re limited to a few drinks and small bites within a short window of time — or you could up the ante and visit a Japanese izakaya.